Man's Voice Reveals His Fighting Ability

I guess they missed ronnie then.

[edit on 16-6-2010 by buddhistpunk]

What about Michael Jackson? He was Bad no?

The depth of the voice has a lot to do with hormones. It seems like an obvious step to conclude that the voice could give away clues to behaviors that are hormonally controlled.

This article is ridiculous. All they did was take a logical, obvious item and dress it up as "science" for some journal or magazine to print.

For the record, my voice is raspy, but not low at all (i sound a lot like John Lear when i talk, strangely enough). I am a former powerlifting champion and all state offensive lineman. Currently about 6'2" and 400lbs, i could remove peoples body parts with relative ease.

I have not been in a fight since i was in 6th grade.

If you look at blood levels, my testosterone is on the upper end of the "norm" and progesterone (i think is what it is....the female hormone that we all have some of ) is on the higher end of " norm" as well.


And, on a side note, even though i am a big guy my Cholesterol is only 173. Gotta love those genes!!!

reply to post by primus2012


The only "Bad" he was, was the kind that makes me turn down the radio.

And i probably should spend another line telling you about it.

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
reply to post by primus2012

 

The only "Bad" he was, was the kind that makes me turn down the radio.

And i probably should spend another line telling you about it.

Voice and fighting ability have no connection. I can speak in a high voice or a deep voice. No one messes with me.

Here is a study by the same individual that led the study mentioned in the OP, Dr Aaron Sell..

news.bbc.co.uk...

..and here's an Angry letter he wrote to The Times.

www.psych.ucsb.edu...

Are you seeing the pattern yet?

Remain Vigilant.

Originally posted by Incubus

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
reply to post by primus2012

 

The only "Bad" he was, was the kind that makes me turn down the radio.

And i probably should spend another line telling you about it.

Voice and fighting ability have no connection. I can speak in a high voice or a deep voice. No one messes with me.

A "low" voice or "high" voice is not your voice.

Reference my previous post for this. It all boils down to hormones. When you are getting ready for a sex change you take hormones. In women this will make the voice deeper. Testosterone has to do with overall aggression and physical strength.

Like i said, the OP's study is nothing but a fancy statement of common sense based on currently known phenomena.

Ok, i must add my 2 cents. This study is crap. Reason being, fighting ability is greatly determined by your training. If you have not trained, then your ability is practically nill, though you may do ok against others who have not trained. At any rate, having 6 or so total years in martial arts experience, I can state that my fighting ability has greatly improved, and yet my voice has changed not at all. Imagine that?

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


You got it, the depth of peoples voice is directly related to testosterone and ultimately muscle mass and aggression.

but like everyone else says, that doesn't indicate that one will actually win a fight.

I think smaller guys have more fighting experience, because big guys are often not challenged.

Sorry. I must state this again, apparently. I take shaolin gong fu now, and i must point out....many of the monks i meet, little chinese guys with high, cheerful, cute voices....are the baddest mo fo's around.

and the testosterone line is bull also. Studies recently have shown that testosterone across our society is rapidly in decline. The average testosterone for a 50 year old in 1980 is the average testosterone for a 25 year old now, and i dont notice peoples voices changing that terribly much. Your voice has nothing to do with testosterone, it has to do with the shape of your nasal passages, the activity of your mucous membranes, and the acoustic aspects of your facial and throat structures.

I think this article and the research therein is inaccurate.

I am softly spoken and I also come across probably as a bit of a wimp but I am the guy who thumbed another guys optic nerve like it was a guitar string because he would not stop trying to cave my head in with a claw hammer even though I kept asking him to step back and back off and leave me alone and stop behaving like a rampaging Neanderthal - and all because I am softly spoken and because I treat people like I wish to be treated.

Now before someone jumps on me and accuses me of celebrating violence you would be dead wrong. I abhor it and I avoid and would always rather talk to a potential enemy and try to bring humour in as a way of defusing danger but when a pot bellied, buckfast swilling Scotsman is looking to shatter my skull with a hammer for a reason I never did discover (he was just a wacko) then I am well within my rights to defend myself and even get somewhat annoyed too (which is not often).


Also I have known a few men men with voices like foghorns and the worst they got up to was to beat up their wife or girlfriends, get drunk, act the fool and pass out in their own urine.

As a former nightclub bouncer in Edinburgh and Glasgow and Penicuik - "Queens Arms" a very long time ago I can say hand on heart that the ones to watch out for are the silent, softly spoken types – they have nothing to prove probably because they are not looking to confirm their masculinity unlike the deep throated romper stomper types.

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
The depth of the voice has a lot to do with hormones. It seems like an obvious step to conclude that the voice could give away clues to behaviors that are hormonally controlled.

Agreed. Those with higher hormone levels will also tend to do things that are more aggressive, like get in fights. They'll also tend to yell, smoke and drink more, which will have an additional lowering effect on the voice.

I don't think it's exactly rocket science to say that you can draw certain conclusions about somebody from the sound and quality of their voice. General clues, anyway. And certainly the less people smoke, the more difficult it may become to draw those conclusions.

reply to post by IntastellaBurst




you are right. larger people are only challenged by someone truly angry, or with something to prove.

my son is very big. He should end up around 6'8" or so, and will likely be well over 400 lbs before graduating high school. I have thought about this a lot, as i do not want to turn a dangerous person loose on the community. So i always remind him to be gentle, to not be loud and scary, that kind of stuff.

but when i really think about it, i deal with the world on a completely different level than most people. I can do something thoughtless and no one will call me on it. So i have to work extra hard to make sure that i am mindful of what i am doing and how people react to it. I don't want to be a blight on society, even if it is inadvertant.

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan

Originally posted by Incubus

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
reply to post by primus2012

 

The only "Bad" he was, was the kind that makes me turn down the radio.

And i probably should spend another line telling you about it.

Voice and fighting ability have no connection. I can speak in a high voice or a deep voice. No one messes with me.

A "low" voice or "high" voice is not your voice.

Reference my previous post for this. It all boils down to hormones. When you are getting ready for a sex change you take hormones. In women this will make the voice deeper. Testosterone has to do with overall aggression and physical strength.

Like i said, the OP's study is nothing but a fancy statement of common sense based on currently known phenomena.

Actually, a low voice or a high voice IS your voice. That's what they're talking about here. It's meaningless. Listen to Mike Tyson. I've actually met him. He's got a high voice.

Originally posted by Crossfate

Each participant was asked to do things such as flex their biceps, which were measured, use a handgrip, and press a chest-strength muscle tester. The individuals also provided their fighting history, mentioning how many fights they had been in over the last four years.

What about the rest of ATS, what do you think about this?

I don't understand why they ask how many fights they had been in over the last four years? What relevance does that have?

There may be plenty of good fighters who haven't been in any fights over the last four years. Being in fights over the last four years may be an indicator of something else, like low IQ or high testosterone, but probably not fighting ability.

I do think the voice reveals something about a person, like to some degree, self-confidence, for example. But fighting ability, I'm not so sure.

A person can have asthma and sometimes his throat is so tight or has a cough that it tightens up his vocal chords, making him sound higher pitched. at other times his voice can be deep.

It really depends. I sometimes even modulate my voice so it can sound higher pitched or deeper. Or I just don't put much emphasis in my voice because I dont want to sound necessarily offensive or come on too strong.

yea that's me.

[edit on 16-6-2010 by The Quiet Storm]

reply to post by Crossfate


In that case Morgan Freeman must be the strongest man alive.

This is really fascinating stuff, it shows how deep communication can go without complex language - just simple vocalizations can convey all that information.

I can tell exactly who i am dealing with, by their voice. There are some cases where their voice is naturally very high pitched and it can throw me off.

I change my voice depending on the situation. If I'm talking to an older woman, I'm most likely going to make an effort to pull the bass out. If I'm talking to someone I can't stand, I drop my voice without even realizing it.

My experience leads me to believe this study is a little bunk. I suppose that generally speaking larger men have deeper voices, but I have met some bruisers that sounded like women. I have also met a number of smaller guys that could tear someone twice their size in half in the blink of an eye.

I wonder what controls were used to see if the men were using their natural speaking voice, and I also wonder if the number of fights these men got into within a 4 year period were verified. Seems to me someone wanting to look macho would drop his voice, and tell people he had beat up a ton of people in 4 years.

Everyone saying look out for the quiet guy is spot on. Every time I've seen some loud mouth pick a fight with some quiet guy, they end up getting tarred pretty quick.